東京物語 - Tokyo Monogatari(1953)

Tokyo Story(東京物語,Tōkyō monogatari) is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It tells the story of a couple who travel to Tokyo from their hometown of Onomichi to visit their grown children, but find their children are too absorbed in their own lives to spend much time with their parents. Only the couple's widowed daughter-in-law Noriko, played by Setsuko Hara, goes out of her way to entertain them. The couple, seeing that their children are too busy, leave for home. When they reach Onomichi, Tomi becomes critically ill after feeling unwell on the journey home. Their children rush back home to see their mother, who dies shortly after. After the funeral, the children decide to leave immediately as they have their work at Osaka and Tokyo, leaving only Noriko to keep their father company. The father, played by Chishu Ryu notes ironically that it is she, a daughter-in-law who has no blood relation with them, who has treated them best during their Tokyo visit. He gives her a watch from his late wife as a memento, and advises her to remarry. This film is often regarded as Ozu's greatest masterpiece and seen as one of the top 100 films in the world of all time (it makes the top ten films of all time by some film critics).